I've been asked to cook for the 12 guests at a dear friend's murder mystery hen party in a couple of weeks. The game has an 80s high school reunion theme, but I've been told I can ignore it if I want. A couple of the guests are totally gluten free, there are a couple of vegetarians, there's me the vegan, and the rest are omnis.

I was thinking it could be fun to do a kitsch 80s-style meal with naff things like potato waffles, alphabeti spaghetti, veggie sausages... I'd really love some more ideas though! Maybe I should just ignore the theme and do a really nice Asian thing?

I know we ate a lot of chinese takeout in the 80s, my mom experimented with curry chicken and I remember pita pocket sandwiches.

Although those aren't vegan dishes, that website can give you some ideas of 80s food. Some of things I never heard of but I imagine it is also regional.

I was just going to post this link! I looked it up, because even though I grew up (well was a kid) in the 80's, that era did not have a really defined cusine. People were starting to eat healthier, and starting to branch out with more worldly foods, but it was more of a bridge between the 70's (which had a clearly defined cusine) and the 90's where the low-fat, low carb, super healthy and wordly foods really began.

Maybe featuring some products that were well known in the 80's? Scroll down to the 80s section, and I think that the list of products that were around might be a good indication.

Remember pudding pops? You can TOTALLY make those yourself, vegan and GF. They were very very 80's. I also remember some stuff like ring pops, fruit roll ups, and candy neckalces and stuff. QUICHE for some reason was a really popular food. We ate that a lot. Also, it is pretty easy to veganize. You can even do crustless for the GF folks.

Chicken patties. I remember a LOT of chicken patties. I don't know offhand what brands are vegan, but you could do a tartar sauce (vegenaise + pickle relish) on toasted buns? Or Isa's tempeh helper? For appetizers maybe something inspired by lunchables? Or maybe serve dinner in TV dinner trays? I know these were kind of 50s ish but I associate them with the '80s, I guess because of the hungry man connection.

I know the strawberry-kiwi trend was a little later, but kiwis kinda emerged in the '80s, no?

Are corn nuts vegan (probably not GF)? Because there's the "corn...nuts.." death scene in Heathers.

I used VCTOTW recipes incl. basic chocolate cupcakes and cream cheese frosting instead of Martha's. The glass was cooked to halfway between soft and hard crack temperature on my candy thermometer, I say this because the first time I didn't cook it long enough and had to redo! They were fun to make, though.

Was born in 87, so I missed out. But I do remember a lot of chicken patties in my youth. Every time I eat a Boca chick'n patty I'm reminded of my Elementary school cafeteria. Also, wasn't fondue a big craze back then?

_________________Half the lies I tell are not true."luckily us vegans dont go into cardiac arrest...but we do go into food comas" - Adam Crisis